Needles have a wide variety of applications in the medical field. For instance, needles are used to delivery therapeutic agents, collect bodily fluids, and fill intravascular drug access devices. In many such applications, there is a desire to avoid or reduce damage to the site in which the needle is inserted. For example, intravascular drug access devices often include a chamber for holding a therapeutic agent and a pierceable rubber septum for receipt of a needle to either fill or empty the chamber. Repeated piercing of the septum with the needle can damage the septum leading to infusion of the septum fragments into the patient's vascular system or into any catheter or other device having access to the port, thereby occluding the port.
With respect to delivering a therapeutic agent to a target site in the body, particularly directly delivering a therapeutic agent to a target site, current injection needles have beveled open ends with Lancet point tips. Such open-ended needles have the potential to core tissue as the needles penetrate the tissue. In the case of directly delivering a therapeutic agent to a myocardial wall of the heart, since most myocardial direct injection procedures involve injecting a therapeutic agent into the left ventricle walls, the risk of tissue embolism into the left ventricular cavity exists.
Accordingly, there is a need for a needle that will prevent or minimize damage to the site in which the needle is inserted.